~ Additive Manufacturing and Technology

Fall is here and I’m so way behind on tech reviews!

In case you follow this blog and thought that I’d been abducted by aliens or worse — no I’m still much in the game and there are so many things to catch up on. Such as:

We’ll look at the new MakerBot SmartExtruder+, Tough PLA SmartExtruder, and MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen Plus. That alone is a lot. I have tested the new tough PLA in the heat of battle – 3lb battlebots to be exact – and the three parts made this way held up exceptionally well. More on that to come!

A review of the Mod-t printer is also in the works. And my experiences printing TPU (thermoplastic urethane) have been really fun. Again, some parts made for a recent 3lb battlebot competition held up so well they came out without a scratch.

Liquid resin printers are getting into the mainstream – check out this awesome new offering on Kickstarter: The Morpheus Morpheus 3D This machine is using the concept of an LCD screen and appropriate lighting, such as the ONO unit coming out later (we hope) this month. The ONO 3D printer uses “daylight” curing resin (probably deep blue actually) from the LCD / LED screen of your phone. The promise is of smooth layers and even clear prints if desired.

Scanning is also an area seeing new options. Smartphones have such incredible cameras these days it doesn’t make sense to use some other imaging part. The long-awaited Bevel from Matter and Form seems to be still long awaited… But I did get my Pixelio scan table and can say it works nicely. More on that later too. Check it out here: Pixelio

So stay tuned – by US Thanksgiving holiday I should have at least a few new personal reviews out there.